Return of the Jedi: Choose Your Own Adventure
by Mina1
Summary: The confrontation on the second Death Star could have ended any number of ways. Join ROTJ as Luke meets Palpatine and see where different choices at different times might have driven Luke, Vader and Palpatine. You control their destiny, so choose wisely.
1. Chapter 1

Title: Return of the Jedi: Choose Your Own Adventure  
Author: Mina**  
**Rating: PG  
Category: Adventure, Drama, Alternate-Universe.  
Characters: Vader, Luke, Palpatine.  
Disclaimer: I make no money for this, and make no claims on the copyright of these characters.  
Setting: Return of the Jedi  
Summary: The confrontation on the second Death Star could have ended any number of ways. Join ROTJ as Luke meets Palpatine and see where different choices at different times might have driven Luke, Vader and Palpatine. You control their destiny, so choose wisely.  
Acknowledgements: Huge thanks to mlgm for the beta.

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**READ ME FIRST:**

If you ever read the 'Choose Your Own Adventure' childrens' books as a kid, you'll know how this works. If not, the premise is pretty straightforward. You don't read this story in chapter order - do that, and it'll make absolutely no sense. Instead, at the end of each chapter, you'll be asked to make a decision for Luke, and directed to the correct chapter for your choice. There are ten possible endings in here - some good, some bad, some really really ugly - which you'll get to according to the choices you make. It's up to you how the story ends... so choose wisely...

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**Return of the Jedi: Choose Your Own Adventure**

**By Mina**

**Prologue**

The future was uncertain.

Luke could feel, deep down in his gut, that anything could happen next - anything at all. He could see a hundred different threads of possibility stretching out before him, winding off into futures he couldn't see, around corners he couldn't fore-guess.

Because this was the point where everything changed.

Or nothing changed at all, perhaps, other than that he would die here, aboard this monstrosity. Maybe walking across the Death Star's Throne Room floor would serve no other purpose than to propel him to his death. As endings went, there were better ones to aim for... but ones he didn't know if he dared to aim for.

No - scratch that.

Belief in a happier ending was what had driven him as he marched through Endor's forest to the Imperial garrison, what had kept him sane whilst he was confined in one of the garrison's cramped detention cells for hours, awaiting his father's presence. What had fortified him during the long, empty hours he'd had to examine his decision to surrender, and what kept him going now despite all the logic and common sense that told him he was walking to his death - or worse. Faith, belief: he mustn't forget them.

Luke swallowed back his apprehension and started forwards across the Throne Room's glossy floor, his awareness of Darth Vader heightened as the man's steps rang out behind him, pressing Luke forward.

"Welcome, young Skywalker -"

Luke lifted his chin, flashed a look of unimpressed defiance at the Emperor's half-smile. He'd known what he was getting himself into, after all. No point in pretending he hadn't believed Vader would bring him here. But he'd had to try. And he was going to keep on trying, right up until it killed him, if that where this confrontation was going.

"- I have been expecting you."

**If you choose to proceed and dabble with destiny, go to Chapter 2.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Return of the Jedi: Choose Your Own Adventure**

**By Mina**

**2. **

"You want this, don't you?"

Palpatine smiled a smile that turned Luke's stomach over. Luke looked away from that knowing leer, and just as quickly looked back again, the horror of Palpatine's revelation fuelling the agitation tingling in his fingertips. And yes he wanted it. Yes he wanted to call the lightsaber to him and light the blade, plunge it into the old man's chest...

But he knew he shouldn't. The Force screamed at him to resist the impulse.

"The hate is swelling in you now."

Hate? Yes, there was hate: hatred of Palpatine, for too many reasons; hatred of Darth Vader, for just standing there silently; and hate directed at himself, for _being_ _so tempted_.

"Take your Jedi weapon," Palpatine urged, his words knifing through Luke's resolve with their persuasion. "Use it. I am unarmed. Strike me down with it."

The image flashed through Luke's mind then: his emerald blade cleaving the Emperor's chest open. And then there would be freedom - for all of them, Vader included. Just one act, one strike. Palpatine probably expected Luke to resist the temptation, to hold back. If Luke struck now, he might even take Palpatine by surprise. He might-

"Give in to your anger. With each passing moment, you make yourself more my servant."

- or then again, he might not.

Frustration welled in Luke. "No," he hissed.

"It is unavoidable. It is your destiny." That smile again. "You, like your father, are now _mine_."

Luke glanced at Vader, not sure what it was he hoped to see in his father's stance, but definitely not seeing it.

"Your fleet has lost," Palpatine continued. Luke turned back to him, the frustration coiling in his gut, cold and hard like a knot. "And your friends on the Endor moon will not survive." The fake sympathy seemed to claw at Luke's insides, demanding retaliation. "There is no escape, my young apprentice. The Alliance will die... as will your friends."

Luke pressed his lips together and looked away. Anywhere but at Palpatine, anywhere but at the cackling laughter in his yellow eyes.

"Good! I can feel your anger." And yes, Palpatine probably could. It simmered within Luke, though he rejected it. Simmered and simmered, until he felt like he was blistering inside. "I am defenceless. Take your weapon! Strike me down with all your hatred, and your journey to the dark side will be complete!"

Luke turned back to Vader again. He still wasn't sure what it was he was looking for in the Dark Lord's body language, but for a moment he thought he saw something; something too insubstantial to name. But he also saw the explosive light of dying Rebel ships reflected off Vader's helmet and suddenly his arm was flying out, the lightsaber leaping towards his palm.

The blade lit, and he brought it down towards Palpatine's chest -

- only for it to be met by Vader's blade, blocking the killing blow.

**If Luke still goes for Palpatine, go to Chapter 17.**

**If Luke fights Vader, go to Chapter 5.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Return of the Jedi: Choose Your Own Adventure**

**By Mina**

**3. **

And he could see it all laid out before him, the future within his grasp.

Majesty.

Order.

He could be what his father had so utterly failed to be - a hero. He could kill Vader and then he could depose Palpatine. And in their place he would rise - a Dark Lord, but instead of being despised by the galaxy he would be loved and hated in equal measure. The man who would both save the galaxy and enslave it.

And Leia would be at his side, her royalty restored, advising him when he needed guidance, appeasing the people when they needed pacifying. And the Alliance would follow him, follow his orders. No longer suspicious of his difference yet willing to use him for their own ends, now they would respect him, love him even.

It could make it all right again, this power, if he just allowed it purchase on his soul.

"Luke - _no_."

Luke's gaze snapped down onto Vader's.

"Control it, don't let it control _you_," Vader warned.

Luke straightened his spine, anger curling in his gut. And nobody would tell him what to do anymore: nobody would control him, or manipulate him, or turn his actions to their own ends.

Nobody would tell him _no_.

The fury was moving his body for him, the pain of an abandoned child and a manipulated teenager and a betrayed man mobilising into a strike that cleaved Vader open from shoulder to gut, taking his heart as it went.

The Dark Lord's body slumped, slipped backwards as he died without a whisper, and fell over the side of the gantry. Luke watched it fall, feeling nothing, feeling numb.

"Good... good!" Palpatine said, clapping his hands slowly. "You have taken his place at my side, heir to my Empire."

Luke turned to him, and whatever it was that Palpatine saw in Luke's eyes, it obviously wasn't what he'd wanted to see. Palpatine looked... frightened, just momentarily. And Luke could feel the anger alight in his gaze, felt like he was being unveiled, his power unleashed.

"Your wrong, Your Highness," he said, straightening and stalking back towards the Emperor. "This is _my_ Empire now."

Then the fight truly began. Palpatine threw bolts of crackling blue lightning at him, and Luke deflected it all with the unbridled power of the dark side fizzing in his veins.

And when it was over - when Luke had reached Palpatine, the lightning deflected around Luke like a deadly halo, and when he brought the lightsaber's blade cutting down through the old man's body - he knew why it was that so many people had sought to control him in his life.

Because he, Luke Skywalker, was _power_.

**The end.**

**You turned Luke to the dark side. Go back to the start to see if you could have had a happier ending!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Return of the Jedi: Choose Your Own Adventure**

**By Mina**

**4.**

And he could see it all laid out before him, the future within his grasp.

Majesty.

Order.

He could be what his father had so utterly failed to be - a hero. He could kill Vader and then he could depose Palpatine. And in their place he would rise... a Dark Lord, but instead of being despised by the galaxy he would be loved and hated in equal measure. The man who would both save the galaxy and enslave it.

Luke blinked, and the images were gone.

That was a fool's path.

He wasn't here to become the next Palpatine. And he wasn't here to kill his father.

He straightened, turned to fully face the Emperor, knowing his next words were probably going to be his last and determined to make a dent in Palpatine's pride with them.

"Never," he said calmly. He tossed his lightsaber aside, not looking where it landed. He wasn't going to need it again. "I'll never turn to the dark side." He felt a smile reach his eyes. "You've failed, Your Highness." And then the smile reached his lips. "I'm a Jedi, like my father before me."

For a moment Palpatine simply stared at him, a sneer on his lips, but through the Force Luke sensed a gathering tide, an inrush of anger and hatred from the Emperor. He forced himself to breathe in another breath, resisted the urge to turn to Vader, stayed facing the Emperor.

Palpatine's eyes flashed with anticipation. And still Luke stayed as he was; ready to face to consequences of his decision.

"So be it, Jedi. If you will not be turned, you will be destroyed!"

And then shrieking blue lightning arced from Palpatine's outstretched fingers, leaping towards Luke. He had moment's disconnected anticipation of the oncoming storm before it hit him, throwing him backwards to a painful collision with the floor. But the pain of that landing was trivial next to the electric sting of the lightning crackling through his body.

**If Luke calls out for Vader, go to Chapter 14.**

**If Luke doesn't call for Vader, go to Chapter 7.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Return of the Jedi: Choose Your Own Adventure**

**By Mina**

**5.**

Luke flashed a frustrated glance at Vader and side-stepped around the throne, backing off.

_Let me!_ he sent with his eyes, but Vader pressed forward, pushing Luke back further. Luke went with the pressure, allowing Vader to keep coming, the blades screeching as they slid along one another. And as Vader moved into the area clear of the throne, Luke went on the offensive, unleashing his frustration as his moved. And Vader met his attack, blow for blow.

Seconds might have passed, or minutes or hours. Luke was lost in the fight, focused but aware it was anger that provided his focus. Then he pushed at Vader, driving him back, and Vader stumbled on the stairs, falling back to the lower level.

Luke stood at the steps' edge, breathing hard, the lightsaber hilt grasped tightly in his mechanical right hand. And he was about to stalk down the stairs towards the man who was supposed to be his father, when-

"Good!! Use your aggressive feelings, boy! Let the hate flow through you."

And he realised what he was doing.

_Fool!_ he thought, shaking his head and at the same time shaking the anger from his thoughts, even the anger directed at himself. _Focus - you didn't come here to fight your father. _

"Obi-Wan has taught you well."

That was Vader. Luke heard the hollow ring booted footsteps as Vader advanced up the stairway. He turned back to face his errant father. _Had_ Ben taught him well? Luke wasn't so sure about that. How easy had it been to give in to his anger just then? And when he'd known full well coming in here that he would be tested like this. Well, it wouldn't happen again. With a flick of his thumb, the lightsaber's blade was doused.

Vader continued his approach, but Luke thought he sensed unease from the man and hoped it wasn't just wishful thinking.

"I will not fight you, Father," Luke said.

And he wouldn't. He wouldn't play Palpatine's game.

"You are unwise to lower your defences," Vader replied, biting the words out. Luke heard resentment there, and wondered what that was about, who it was directed at. Possibly all three of them, he thought.

_What will he do if I don't give ground?_ Luke wondered. The red blade was lit, and Vader showed no sign of slowing. Luke sucked in a steadying breath. Would Vader attack? He thought he'd sensed something there, something in Vader's presence that he wanted to latch onto. A conflict. An unease.

He felt Palpatine's gaze on his back, watching with fascinated intent.

Vader continued his approach.

**If Luke retreats, go to Chapter 11.**

**If Luke refuses to retreat, go to Chapter 6.**


	6. Chapter 6

**Return of the Jedi: Choose Your Own Adventure**

**By Mina**

**6.**

Vader brought the blade down towards him and Luke deflected it, disappointment running through him.

"I won't fight you," he said.

But Vader kept coming and Luke was forced to deflect another blow, turning Vader's blade aside. Palpatine cackling laughter echoed from somewhere behind them.

"You are unwise to allow your foolish dreams quarter in here. If we do not fight, you will be killed," Vader warned sharply.

_Be_ killed? Luke latched on to that phrasing, hearing what Vader hadn't said - he hadn't said that _he_ would kill Luke.

"Then kill me," Luke challenged. And he disengaged from the fight, doused his blade, stepping back and opening his arms wide, offering himself to his errant father.

"You will defend yourself," Vader said, and Luke heard fear there. His father brought his blade around and down again; brought it close enough that the heat of it slashed at Luke's chest, not quite close enough to make contact but within a whisper of it.

"I will not," he replied. And Vader paused, just fractionally, blade resting a millimetre from Luke's tunic. Luke saw the hesitation, the uncertainty. He felt a smile curling at the corners of his mouth. "I will not fight you, Father. I came here to save you or die trying. It's your choice."

And still Vader paused.

But Luke wasn't the only one who saw where this moment was heading.

He felt Palpatine's attack coming before the blow hit, but didn't have long enough to do anything about it before he was being thrown forward, towards Vader - towards Vader's still lit lightsaber.

He gasped at the lancing pain as the blade pierced his stomach and slid through his body. And then that breath went out of him in a strangled cry of pain.

Palpatine laughed.

Vader stumbled back, dousing the blade, but too late: far, far too late.

Luke felt the blood rushing from his head, a faint buzzing beginning to take hold in his mind. He couldn't look down, didn't even know how bad the wound was, but he thought the rushing sound in his ears was probably the sound of his life retreating, the possibilities he'd seen drawing away from him like a tide receding.

"Fool!" That was Palpatine. Luke's knees gave up on any attempt to hold his weight and he was pitching forward. Vader caught him. "If you will not be turned, then you will be-"

And the words just stopped.

Luke wanted to turn, wanted to look, but he knew what had happened without needing to see it for himself. He'd heard the sizzle of energy that had left his father's mind, felt Vader direct it at Palpatine like an unstoppable blade, the full Force of his horror and anger that he still hadn't voiced.

And Palpatine was gone, dying in a flash of light that seared Luke's eyes, disintegrated by Vader's ire.

"No!" Vader called, the sound reverberating through Luke, seeming to shake him down to his soul. "No!" And Luke knew he wasn't mourning Palpatine.

And then darkness took his vision, sweeping aside the sight of his father dropping to the floor beside him. Vader's arms closed convulsively around Luke's body, and Luke only felt numb.

"Father..." he whispered.

A Force vision swept through him then, sad and terrible. Of Darth Vader sat upon the Imperial throne, alone. So very alone. Years and years of solitude stretching out before him, a desolate path.

"Leia..." Luke said, desperately wanting to avoid that vision. "... my sister." Those hands tightened, almost painful with their fierce grip. "Help her."

"I will," Vader swore. "Luke-"

Luke slumped, feeling whatever strength he had left leaving him. _I forgive you_, he wanted to say. _It's okay_. But the words didn't make it past the sweeping tide of blackness that engulfed his mind, swallowing everything, and it was over.

**The end.**

**You killed both Luke and Palpatine. Go back to the start to see if you could have had a happier ending!**


	7. Chapter 7

**Return of the Jedi: Choose Your Own Adventure**

**By Mina**

**7.**

Palpatine was talking, but Luke couldn't hear the words. All he heard was the fearsome crackling of electricity burning across his skin. It seemed to make a high pitched screech as it fed off his body. And still Palpatine talked. And still Luke had no idea what he was saying.

He thought he saw Vader rising, and for a moment the cry was in his throat, waiting to be screamed - _Father! Help me!_ - but then he had an image of the cost of that cry, a vision of what would happen if Vader did help him. He saw the crackling blue fire burning across his father's body, shorting out the life support system with the acrid smell of burnt electronics.

_No!_ he thought. He wouldn't lose anyone else because they had sacrificed themselves for him. He'd made his decision when he'd thrown his lightsaber aside, and he wasn't going to beseech his father to suffer the consequences of his choices.

So the call stayed within the bounds of his mind, refused a voice.

But Luke screamed, the pain ripping through him. Palpatine was playing with him, he knew, drawing out the agony. Luke smelt burning, and thought it was probably his skin and hair smouldering. And he kept screaming.

It paused, just briefly. Palpatine let out a long, satisfied sigh. "Now young Skywalker, you will die."

And the lightning was back, intensified. Seconds stretched impossibly. Each heartbeat was an hour in fiery pain, each breath a day of agony. And it was unending. Pain layered upon pain layered upon pain, until Luke wondered if his body was ever going to allow him the cold dark of death that he craved for.

He'd stopped screaming. The lightning had snaked down his throat and burned away his ability to cry out. _Please end it_, he thought. _Please stop._

And suddenly, it did stop.

There was a cry of surprise, then Luke thought something had exploded, but his eyes showed nothing but black and flashes of painful, spasming light.

For another indeterminable time, Luke lay on the floor, the residual energy from the lightning causes his arms and legs to spasm.

_I'm dying_, he thought, and he slipped down into a dank, frightening darkness.

But that wasn't the end.

He surfaced occasionally, like a drowning man breaching the water only to crash back down under with the next wave. Consciousness came fitfully and without clarity, snippets of awareness. Someone was carrying him, they were in a lift, then a corridor, then the screech of evacuation sirens pierced his mind, then the rumble of engines firing cold, then -

Vader.

"Luke," the man said, and there was fear there. Luke could recognise that now, felt like he could see through the mask that leant over him, could strip away the armour with his eyes. "Luke, don't go."

It was pleading, and he would have obeyed if he could have. He tried to move his lips, but they were burnt and his throat was blistered. His voice barely made a dry hissing sound of pain.

"Luke, they did it. Your friends did it. The Alliance has won. The Death Star is destroyed." As if that could keep Luke here. As if that was what Luke had been fighting for in there. A hand gripped his shoulder, lifted him, dragged him back somewhere - a medical bunk.

_Too late_, Luke thought, and though he hadn't spoken the words, Vader denied them fiercely.

"No. No, you'll live." And had Darth Vader ever sounded more human than when he said that? Luke didn't think so.

Luke tried to shake his head, found he couldn't. Found he couldn't move anything. His vision was fading, too, blankness sweeping in.

The medical scanners were screaming. _I'm going_, he thought, but then a warm tide swept him back to alertness, to awareness of the screaming pain in his body.

"Don't go," Vader said, angrily this time, and Luke knew it was his father's Force of will that kept him here against his body's wishes.

_Please_, he thought. _It hurts._

"I'm sorry." Sadness, such deep sadness. "I waited too long."

And Luke's vision of the future came back to him then, the vision that had kept him silent. The crackling blue fire burning across his father's body, shorting out the life support system. The acrid smell of burnt electronics. And he didn't feel the regret that Vader felt.

_I saved you_, he thought. _You live._

"You did," Vader replied reluctantly. "You did."

_Good,_ he thought. _Then we won._

"Luke-"

- but he was fading -

"Luke!"

- and then, mercifully, he was gone.

**The end.**

**You killed Palpatine and saved Vader, but you also killed Luke. Go back to the start to see if you could have had a happier ending!**


	8. Chapter 8

**Return of the Jedi: Choose Your Own Adventure**

**By Mina**

**8.**

There was a break in the lightning assault. Luke sensed Palpatine readying for the final blow. And he wasn't going to waste the last seconds he had available to him. Swallowing the groan of pain, Luke pushed himself up onto his elbows, fixing Palpatine with an unyielding stare.

"Then kill me," he said. "But you haven't won."

Palpatine glared, blue fire dancing across his fingertips. "Oh, I think I have," he said. "Even with you dead, I have your father, who has proved himself my loyal servant, willing to sacrifice even his son for me."

Luke smiled grimly. "And I forgive him," he said. "I don't know what you've done to control him, but I don't care - I forgive him." He let out a long breath, feeling the future tingling in his mind, the possibilities, the faith in the spark of good in Vader, even if it wasn't enough for him to step in and help Luke now. He glanced across at where Vader stood behind Palpatine, the man cradling his severed right arm. "And I accept him."

Palpatine snarled, lifted his fingers - and then whirled even as Vader started to move forward.

Chaos reigned for a moment, and Luke didn't understand what had just happened. Then he saw Vader flying back through the air, outlined in blue electric fire, on and on into the air, above the abyss - and then dropping.

"No!" Luke yelled, realising Vader had chosen that moment to attack Palpatine but had been anticipated.

He reached out with everything he had left, every last ounce of failing energy, to stop his father's fall, bring his falling body back up to their level and drop him to the floor.

The effort cost him. Luke fell back to the floor, gasping. He couldn't _breathe_. He felt like there was a weight on his chest, crushing his lungs, pressing in with a darkness that tore the edges of his consciousness. But he knew Vader was alive - unconscious but alive - and he knew Palpatine was looking down on him with narrowed eyes, a slight smile on his thin lips.

"Ah," Palpatine said. "I think we found your weakness, boy."

And then unconsciousness came, a black tide that swallowed him.

* * *

How long it was before he woke again, Luke didn't know. It could have been hours or days - or years.

His skin felt tired and dry, his limbs heavy with inactivity. His mind felt parched, like it had been filled with sand that was only now receding.

He was on a bed, he knew that much. Somewhere so inordinately comfortable that this semi-waking state seemed a perfectly sane situation to stay in. He could feel a breeze whispering over his face, stirring at his hair. And there was no pain.

That realisation sent a charge of adrenaline to his muscles, made him sit bolt upright, the wrongness of the situation lancing a spike of panic through his body.

And this definitely wasn't the Death Star.

"Welcome back, my young apprentice," Palpatine said. Luke twisted to see the Emperor standing in the shadows of an ornate doorway, his face obscured by a wine-coloured hood. "Or rather, welcome home."

And Luke moved quickly to get up off the bed, stumbling slightly as drowsy muscles struggled to take his weight. He caught himself on the bed's edge, eyes raking this new situation. He turned a full circle in the room; took in the arched windows and ornate surroundings, the view through those windows of sleek towers scraping at a traffic-packed azure sky. _The Imperial Palace_, he thought, with a cold sense of dread coiling somewhere deep in his chest, constricting around his heart.

But... why? Why was he here - why wasn't he dead?

The last memory he had was of lightning; of screaming out his last breaths, of dying as he writhed upon the cold Throne Room floor. And of Vader, propelled into the air by a burst of blue electricity. And of him, reaching out for his father, heedless of the power he called upon despite his fading consciousness, heedless of what he revealed in his desperate act.

He turned back to Palpatine, a question on his lips, but Palpatine merely gazed aside. Luke followed that gaze instinctively, to a viewscreen set on the wall in an ornate frame. Like a prized work of art, but it was nothing of the kind.

Luke frowned, disbelieving, moving closer to the image.

It was a live holo feed of a medical centre - or a medical cell, maybe. Of a pale man in a cage of wires and machinery, his face half-obscured by a respirator, his eyes closed.

"Father?" he whispered.

"He was quite injured, I'm afraid," Palaptine whispered, slipping into the room to stand beside Luke. And Luke moved away from him, moved closer to the screen. He wanted to reach out a hand, to touch the image, but he stilled the action. Impossible to tell whether the man beneath that net of black wires was even alive.

Palpatine either guessed what he was thinking or plucked the question from Luke's mind. "Oh, don't worry. He'll live." Luke turned to him, nausea turning his gut - because he knew what was coming. He _knew_. Palpatine met Luke's gaze with a meaningful smile. "For as long as you remain here, my young apprentice, he'll live."

**The end.**

**Everyone lived - but at what cost? Go back to the start to see if you could have had a happier ending!**


	9. Chapter 9

**Return of the Jedi: Choose Your Own Adventure**

**By Mina**

**9.**

**Epilogue**

"They are being slaughtered."

It was said with unrestrained emotion and Luke forced his tired eyes to open so he could glance across at his father. His gaze moved from Vader's impassive mask to where his clenched fist rested against the shuttle's comm system. Tuned into an encrypted Imperial frequency, the comm played the sounds of panicking officers and hasty retreat orders through the cockpit speakers.

The tables had turned, Luke thought. Now it wasn't him watching Alliance ships burn, but his father watching Imperial ships die, throwing explosive light across the starscape. Vader sat in the pilot's seat of the _lambda_-class shuttle, seeming to occupy the whole of the cockpit, his black armour reflecting the control panel's blinking red and green indicators.

The multiple deaths rippled through the Force, filling it with half-formed cries of pain and disbelief that were abruptly silenced. Luke took a steadying breath.

"Ackbar won't give any quarter," he said. "This is too big an opportunity to wipe out the fleet."

Vader turned to him, tilting his head just slightly. He didn't speak, but Luke felt his father's presence focus upon him, directed like a searchlight onto his presence. That probe was meant not only to assess his health, Luke knew, given even he would admit he'd sounded exhausted as he spoke, but also hunted out unspoken disapproval for the action Vader was considering.

Luke gave a mental shrug - he couldn't blame Vader for feeling responsible for the men under his command. In fact, if Vader hadn't felt torn by seeing them destroyed so thoroughly, Luke might have wondered if the recent events on the Death Star meant anything at all. He doubted a Sith Lord would have flinched at the death of a few thousand troops when he had just destroyed his master and reclaimed his son. But Vader apparently felt an obligation for those lives, and Luke released his apprehension in a long breath.

Vader nodded. He turned to trigger the comm.

Luke reached out and stilled his father's hand briefly. "One condition," he said.

Vader laughed - actually laughed, just briefly; good humour at Luke's audacity - and Luke blinked, taken by surprise by the sound. "Go on," Vader said.

A smile curled at the corners of Luke's mouth. "When you've got them out of here, we're coming back. Alone."

Vader considered him for a moment. "For Organa," he said, and Luke heard the shock at her relation to them still reverberating in Vader's voice. "You realise she will probably want to arrest me," he said.

Luke frowned. He hadn't considered that. In truth, he hadn't really considered anywhere past this point - past getting off the Death Star alive with his father. What happened after this point hadn't seemed nearly as important as getting here in the first place.

"And if I allow myself to be arrested, I doubt your Council would hesitate to order my immediate execution."

And the annoying thing was, Vader was probably right. Luke looked aside, back out to the battle still raging.

"I'll talk to Leia," he said. "I'll persuade her-"

"She is not easily persuaded, that one," Vader warned. He paused before continuing with less force and more dry humour. "It is a family trait."

Luke glanced back at his father at that, struggling against the smile that desperately wanted to break through his serious consideration of what the hell they did next.

"She isn't as hard-hearted as you think," he insisted. "She won't be able to send you to your death. Not now she knows who you... were." And he'd chosen those last words carefully. Wondering... wondering-

"Who I _am_," Vader said sharply. "The distinction between Darth Vader and Anakin Skywalker was only ever in my mind..." He trailed off. "It would be all too easy to reject the name Vader as I did Skywalker, and forget what I have done." His fist closed, the leather glove creaking as it did so. "But I will not. Perhaps your sister would be correct, Luke - perhaps I should pay for the past twenty years, with my life if necessary."

Luke's heart jumped like he'd been struck. He sat up straighter. "Don't talk like that," he said. "You just destroyed the Emperor. That has to count for something."

"One act of contrition does not recompense twenty years of wrongs," Vader said.

"If anything's an easy way out, then it's handing yourself over to Mothma and Ackbar for execution," Luke snapped back. "You're better than that."

Vader stared at him silently. Luke narrowed his eyes, just slightly, daring his father to call him on how well he knew Vader. Because there wasn't an answer Luke could give to that argument. It was something deep down, something instinctive and primitive that told Luke that the man in front of him could come through this - could walk into the flames and right on out of them again. And _live_, in more than just the physiological sense of being alive.

The energy he'd put into his argument cost Luke: a cramp spread from his ribs to contract a tight circle of pain around his torso, and then on into his stomach, creating a twisting nausea. Luke leant back in the chair and closed his eyes, pressing down the cold feeling in his stomach, allowing a brief moment of panic for his dignity at the thought that the nausea clawing up his throat might just make him throw up. There was a faint buzzing in his ears.

Then there was a hand on Luke's forehead - Vader's hand - and the nausea retreated like Vader had simply pushed it back with that gloved palm.

"We don't have time to argue over this," Vader said, but not as sternly as he might have. The words swam through Luke's mind, and he couldn't disagree with them. "I will get the fleet away and rendezvous with the _Devastator_. You need better medical care than this shuttle can provide. We will contact Organa once that is done. And make our decisions then."

Luke swallowed, dared to open his eyes again.

"Okay," he said. He smiled faintly. "Let's do it."

And Vader turned back to the shuttle's communications console, finally triggering the comm.

Luke watched his father work, the nausea slowly receding. Vader still talked like Vader, his orders snapped out with his customary, unrelenting efficiency. And Luke thought he recognised relief in some of the voices that answered Vader's hails - relief that someone was taking charge, that someone had arrived to save them from the destruction the Rebel ships were wreaking. To the Imperials, their hero had just flown in.

Luke thought he knew how they felt.

And, yes, the future was still uncertain. But whereas when he'd walked across the Death Star's Throne Room Luke had anticipated a hundred different possible endings, what he saw now was a hundred possible _beginnings_. A hundred unwritten possibilities just waiting to happen. And whatever else happened next, he and his father would face those possibilities together.

So, yes, the future was still uncertain.

But as far as Luke was concerned, that was just fine.

**The end.**


	10. Chapter 10

**Return of the Jedi: Choose Your Own Adventure**

**By Mina**

**10. **

"And now young Skywalker... you will die."

Luke clawed breath into his lungs, and screamed, "Stop!"

And, amazingly, Palpatine did.

Luke gasped, feeling his muscles cramp, and he groaned.

"Try again," Palpatine said.

Luke didn't understand for a moment, he simply tried to gain control of his fitful limbs. Then another sizzle of lightning snaked over his body. "S-stop," he gasped.

And the word had cost him, both times he'd said it. Palpatine must know that. But still another strike raked over him. "Try again," Palpatine reiterated, patiently.

"Stop - please!"

Palpatine laughed, a crackling, dry laugh. "Not quite," he said. "I was looking for 'please, Master'."

Luke pressed his lips together, never willing to say that word.

"Hmmm," Palpatine said. And then the lightning came again. Less intense now, toying with him, painful and damaging but not lethal. Luke wondered what Vader was doing, what Vader was thinking - but he'd given something away, he knew, by asking for mercy. A weakness, a chink in his resolve. And Palpatine and Vader would have seen it.

_What had he done_?

The lightning continued relentlessly.

"Say it again," Palpatine invited, cordially, in-between biting stabs of electric energy.

"No," Luke gasped. "Kill me."

But all he got was another laugh, and the sound of footsteps approaching. Then Palpatine was crouching down beside him, a hand on his cheek. And, _Force!_, his fingers were cold, cold as a grave, against the burnt skin of Luke's face.

"Oh, my friend, I don't think that's going to happen now." Luke pushed himself away from the Emperor, only to collide with a bank of storage containers behind him. Nowhere to go. "Poor would-be Jedi. And you were doing so well."

"Go to hell," Luke whispered, the words sounding raw, reflecting his anger for his moment of weakness.

Palpatine smiled, pulling his lips back into a feral grin. "There you go," he said. "There's the anger we're looking for." He looked aside briefly, thoughtfully. "But now I fear we must move this conversation elsewhere. I'm afraid your friends may just succeed in destroying my Death Star. And won't they mourn Luke Skywalker, who died aboard this station?"

Luke closed his eyes against the proximity of the man.

"Nothing to add, my friend?"

Luke said nothing, but the question hadn't been directed at him.

"He needs medical treatment," Vader rumbled. More anger flashed through Luke then, at the perversity of his father's moral compass. He'd been about to watch Luke die, and now he was worrying about his injuries.

"And he will get it," Palpatine replied, "once he submits to his master."

Luke swallowed convulsively. "Go to hell," he said again.

"My friend," Palpatine said, "we're already there."

And a sizzle of energy leapt from Palpatine's fingers, over his skull, seeming to pierce his mind - and he fell back, unconscious.

**The end.**

**Everyone lived, but Luke's in even more trouble than he started in. Go back to the start to see if you could have had a happier ending!**


	11. Chapter 11

**Return of the Jedi: Choose Your Own Adventure**

**By Mina**

**11.**

Vader brought his blade down towards him and Luke deflected it, disappointment running through him. That had not been an idle blow - if Luke had not defended himself, he would be in two pieces right now.

He swept his own blade up, knocking Vader's aside briefly before gathering strength in his legs and leaping with the Force, somersaulting upwards and over, back onto the gantry that hung three metres up and behind him.

And he sensed... relief. A powerful, all-encompassing relief.

It wasn't his. It was Vader's - and then the man slammed powerful shields back down, realising he had slipped. And Luke had never felt Vader slip before.

Vader might not have pulled the punch, but Luke nodded to himself, deciding that his father had shown him there was something worth fighting for still.

"Your thoughts betray you, Father. I feel the good in you... the conflict."

He knew that would get a reaction. He wasn't disappointed.

"There is no conflict." It was stubbornly said, and Luke wanted to smile. Instead, he licked his lips and pursued the topic.

"You couldn't bring yourself to kill me before," he said. "And I don't believe you'll kill me now."

Said with genuine belief, with honesty, with an unfaltering earnestness he could hear in his voice. He hoped to somehow reach the man he was sure still lived beneath Vader's armour.

But Vader responded with anger. "You underestimate the power of the dark side," he snapped. And then, "If you will not fight, then you will be destroyed."

And suddenly the ruby blade was whipping through the air towards Luke.

It took Luke a full second to realise what Vader had done, but then he was moving, even as the gantry started to collapse. He rolled with the sudden loss of support. There was a moment of feeling suspended in the air, then one of falling, and then he hit the ground, rolling as he went, trying to disperse the full brunt of the impact. Still, his breath went out of him. He tensed, waiting for Vader to take advantage of the situation.

But he didn't.

Luke found himself continuing his roll, falling into the space under the Emperor's platform.

Still no attack.

He moved quickly, regaining his feet and heading into the shadows.

And still nothing happened, no sign of Vader. Luke didn't know where his father was. He felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end. On impulse, he slammed his shields in place as firmly as he could and pressed back against a support strut, eyes scanning the area.

For a moment Luke wondered if he was just going to be left down here. Then he heard footsteps, followed by Vader's respirator echoing through the narrow space, the sound bouncing off the metal support struts. Too close, and Luke wasn't sure what to do yet - whether to fight or whether to resist. He moved stealthily, retreating further under the structure.

"You cannot hide forever, Luke."

_Sure I can_! Luke thought wildly, but he forced himself to think soberly.

"I will not fight you," he reiterated. And he wouldn't. For himself and for Vader: neither of them could afford to fight the other.

"Give yourself to the dark side," Vader said. Luke resisted the urge to sigh with frustration - how many times could you hear that in one day before the people saying it finally go the message: _No_. "It is the only way you can save your friends."

And that hit the mark. Luke bowed his head, closed his eyes. He could feel Leia's presence tingling on the edge of his awareness. She was in pain. How or why she was in pain he wasn't sure; all he knew was that a corner of her soul lived within a corner of his, and that it cried out for solace.

His sister. Incredible to think, even now. But dangerous to think, also. Because if Vader knew -

"Yes..." Vader said. And Luke's eyes flew open. "Yes, your thoughts betray you too. Your feelings for them are strong. Especially for..." Luke was slamming in place more shielding than he'd ever had before, but he knew, if only from the sick feeling in his gut, that he was too late. "... sister!"

Luke's heart was in his throat. He squeezed his eyes shut against the burning regret at his mistake. What had he just done?

"So... you have a twin sister," Vader said, and Luke didn't hear wonder and delight there. He just heard Vader latch onto another way to control Luke, another person to hunt and possess. "Your feelings have now betrayed her, too. Obi-Wan was wise to hide her from me. Now his failure is complete."

Luke felt that heat scorching through his veins again, the call of the dark side - this time fuelled by his fear. That power, tempting him with promises of putting right his mistake, with sweeping Palpatine and Vader aside and protecting Leia. And still her injuries called to him, whispering her pain.

And when Vader spoke his next sentence, that power was like a furnace in Luke's body, on the brink of hitting over-burn.

"If you will not turn to the dark side, then perhaps she will."

**If Luke attacks Vader, go to Chapter 13.**

**If Luke stays hiding, go to Chapter 12.**


	12. Chapter 12

**Return of the Jedi: Choose Your Own Adventure**

**By Mina**

**12. **

Instinctive denial raced through Luke and his hand was going for the hilt of his lightsaber...

... and he halted the action, forcing back the burning protective anger.

He couldn't give in this easily. Leia was strong - stronger than him, he often suspected - and she wouldn't want him to throw his ethics aside to try and protect hers.

Instead, he shrank back further under the platform.

He heard Vader's growl of irritation, but where was Palpatine?

Luke frowned, glancing up at the underside of the platform. The Emperor must still be up there somewhere. Waiting - waiting to see what his second in command would do with his errant son, who refused to fight.

Palpatine was up there and Vader was down here. Which meant Palpatine was unprotected. And suddenly a third opportunity had opened up for Luke: fight his father, hide from Vader... or go after the man who was orchestrating this show.

**If Luke goes after Palpatine, go to Chapter 20.**

**If Luke resists and stays hiding, go to Chapter 18.**


	13. Chapter 13

**Return of the Jedi: Choose Your Own Adventure**

**By Mina**

**13.**

"Never!" Luke screamed, already moving forward, lightsaber blade screaming into life alongside his cry.

He took Vader by surprise. He took _himself_ by surprise. The sudden surge of power was intoxicating, barely controlled, and he moved forward, slashing the blade down again and again.

And Vader fell back, not even finding the fighting space to properly defend himself.

Luke kept going, the fierce protectiveness he felt for Leia given form; the fear he felt given form. And the anger, at a father who would willingly turn both his children over to the dark side in pursuit of power.

_Well here's your power_, Luke thought, savagely. _Here's your dark side._

He felt no mercy. He felt no desire to stop. Even when they backed towards the turbolift gantry and Vader was failing, stumbling, he kept going. Kept going -

- and his blade cleaved through Vader's right arm.

He stopped.

Because Vader was beaten, and they both knew it.

Luke felt his gaze burning into the eye sockets of Vader's mask. He wanted to rip the mask from him. Wanted to reveal what was left of Anakin Skywalker before he drove the blade through the chest of his tormentor.

_Anakin Skywalker._

And then, Luke truly stopped.

Horrified, his eyes went to the sparking circuitry of what was left of his father's right arm. And he looked at his own arm, so recently severed in anger.

His gaze went back to Vader's mask, and he felt like he couldn't breathe around the churning power in his chest. Just a second longer, and Vader would have been dead. By his son's hand. And still the urge to follow through burned through Luke's blood like a firestorm.

"Good! Your hate has made you powerful." _Palpatine_. Luke turned to look across at the Emperor as the man descended the staircase. Palpatine was grinning, a death's head grin, bloodless lips pulled back from yellow teeth. "Now fulfil your destiny and take your father's place at my side!"

**If Luke does what Palpatine asks, go to Chapter 3.**

**If Luke refuses, go to Chapter 4.**


	14. Chapter 14

**Return of the Jedi: Choose Your Own Adventure**

**By Mina**

**14.**

Palpatine was talking, but Luke couldn't hear the words. All he heard was the fearsome crackling of electricity burning across his skin. It seemed to make a high pitched screech as it fed off his body. And still Palpatine talked. And still Luke had no idea what he was saying.

"Father!"

The cry burst from him, ripped from a primitive part of him that existed beyond the pain of the lightning.

"Help me!"

Nothing happened

Luke thought Vader was still there; thought the man stood watching as Luke writhed on the cold floor.

Luke ached inside, abandonment turning through his mind, black and all-encompassing. He didn't know if he could bear to call out to Vader again, if this silence and the cold crackle of lightning was his only answer.

**If Luke calls out again, go to Chapter 19.**

**If Luke stays silent, go to Chapter 15.**


	15. Chapter 15

**Return of the Jedi: Choose Your Own Adventure**

**By Mina**

**15.**

So he didn't call.

And the lightning continued.

Palpatine paused, cackling, obviously sensing Luke's decision to keep his silence. "At last, young Jedi, you understand. Your father is _mine_." Another sizzling lash from the lightning. "Keep your silence - he won't help you."

Luke squeezed his eyes shut, desperately concentrating on keeping the breath flowing in and out of his lungs, fighting off the buzzing draw of unconsciousness.

The lightning leapt towards him again, another painful lick of blue fire. Luke cried out, the scream broken by the spasming of his throat muscles. This couldn't continue. Any moment now, Palpatine would tire of toying with him and simply kill him. Now was his last chance, his last opportunity to change his future.

**If Luke asks Palpatine to stop, go to Chapter 10.**

**If Luke tells Palpatine he forgives his father for not saving him, go to Chapter 8.**

**If Luke sends a message to Vader through the Force, forgiving him, go to Chapter 16.**


	16. Chapter 16

**Return of the Jedi: Choose Your Own Adventure**

**By Mina**

**16.**

There was a break in the lightning assault. Luke sensed Palpatine readying for the final blow, the killing blow. And Luke wasn't going to waste the last seconds he had available to him.

Swallowing the groan of pain, Luke pushed himself up onto his elbows, fixing Palpatine with an unyielding stare.

But then he paused.

He'd been about to tell Palpatine that he forgave his father, about to tell him that Vader would turn on Palpatine, one day - _he could see it. _But what would Palpatine do, if he said that? Turn on Vader? Quite possibly. Luke shifted his gaze from Palpatine to Vader, meeting his father's masked stare.

Luke didn't need words to tell Vader he forgave him. He said it with his eyes, and with the Force, opening the bond between them, dropping all the shielding he'd thrown in place, laying himself bare to his father's gaze.

And then the lightning struck again, and Luke screamed, falling back. But still the bond was open, like a thread that stretched between them, flowing with acceptance and sorrow and... determination?

_Join me_, he heard in his mind.

And he was back on Bespin, clinging to a support tower, the wind trying to tear him from his perch. _Join me!_ and, _You can destroy the Emperor, he has foreseen it._

The lightning paused again. Luke heard Palpatine say, "And now young Skywalker, you will die."

And he smiled, because Vader's presence flooded his mind, and he felt like there were suddenly two people inhabiting his one body, and he was exploding with power.

The lightning came and, although it was no less painful than before, Luke was moving. Without ever thinking to move he was suddenly on his feet, the lightning still coursing over him.

And his screaming had stopped.

He felt - _alive_. Never more alive than in this moment. Never further from death. _Join me!_ It made sense, suddenly. Join me - not to destroy everything, but to create something. To create this.

He walked forward, the lightning sparking as it arced over him. And although it was his body moving, somehow it felt like it was Vader who was doing the walking and Luke doing the clinging onto consciousness despite the agonizing pain.

And then he saw that his lightsaber was in held Vader's remaining left hand, and the blade was lit.

"What?!" Palpatine snapped, confused, backing away from the approaching Jedi who continued to walk despite being electrocuted.

And the Emperor backed straight into Vader who, with a cry of determination, opened Palpatine up from hip to hip.

The lightning stopped abruptly.

Palpatine's eyes widened in shock. Then his body split, slumping to the deck in two pieces.

Luke gasped, not quite believing what they'd just achieved, not quite believing he was still on his feet. Vader was moving towards him, lightsaber still lit. And Luke felt no fear, despite that.

Vader grasped him, caught him around the waist as Luke started to fall, and kept moving, killing the lightsaber blade, retreating rapidly, away from the body -

- as it exploded, throwing them forwards with a wave of wild blue fire.

The breath went out of Luke as Vader landed on top of him, driving him to the deck.

The explosion rolled over them, and for a moment neither moved, both absorbing the significance of what had just happened. The thread of Force energy between was still there, unboundaried. And neither or them seemed inclined to close it. Luke stared up at his father's mask and Vader stared back down at him, both without words.

Luke broke the moment as his lungs strained to gather air against Vader's weight. "Can't breathe," he gasped, and the words seemed to break Vader's silent reverie.

The man tried to take his weight with his one remaining arm, tried to kneel but Luke guessed his prosthetic legs weren't allowing it. In the end Vader slumped to the floor beside Luke, resting his hand against Luke's chest.

And, in-between heartbeats, breathing suddenly got easier.

Luke blinked, feeling the pulse of energy from his father travelling through him, whistling through his tired limbs in time with his racing pulse.

"You did it," Luke said, voice sounding rough like he'd been drinking Corellian-grade brandy. "You killed him."

"_We_ did it," Vader corrected him. Then his fist clenched convulsively. "Luke," he said, "I should have-"

Luke shook his head, though his neck muscles protested at the movement. "It's done," he said. "And we have to get out of here - if Han and Leia get the shield down-"

And suddenly an alarm screamed, piercing the air. A proximity alarm. And if something was close enough to the Death Star to trigger that, then the shield was already down.

Luke struggled to get his muscles moving again. He tried to rise, found he didn't even have the strength to sit. "I can't," he said, frustrated. Where had the energy from seconds ago gone? But then Vader stood, reached down and, with help from the Force, lifted Luke up and over his shoulder, balancing him with his left hand.

"Hold on," his father said, and set off to escape the station's destruction.

**You did it - they both survived and Palpatine died. **

**Go to Chapter 9 for the Epilogue.**


	17. Chapter 17

**Return of the Jedi: Choose Your Own Adventure**

**By Mina**

**17.**

Luke flashed a frustrated glance at Vader but held his ground, the lightsabers hissing and crackling as they clashed.

Palpatine laughed - a dry, brittle sound that raked the air.

Luke refocused on Vader, narrowed his eyes, planted his feet firmly against the floor. There was something in Vader's stance, a reluctance, a conflict, a-

- Luke thumbed his blade off. The opposing pressure gone, Vader's blade swept away, the Dark Lord unbalanced for a moment. And Luke re-triggered his own blade as his opposite momentum took him down towards Palpatine.

Palpatine had time to gasp a disbelieving breath into his lungs. And then Luke's blade slid into his chest, digging into flesh and bone before hitting the old man's heart.

Palpatine died instantly.

And _exploded_.

There wasn't time between the killing blow and the explosion for Luke to even register his surprise. Blue fire leapt towards him, with the unbridled, unleashed power of the dark side. Somebody called his name - Vader? - but he was already flying backwards, thrown off his feet by the force of the explosion, the lightsaber hilt torn from his fingers.

And when he collided with the view-port there was just a fraction of a second, a spark of realisation, of knowledge that he was going to die, before his skull cracked against the unyielding plastisteel surface.

And then nothing.

**The end.**

**You killed Luke. Go back to the start to see if you could have had a happier ending!**


	18. Chapter 18

**Return of the Jedi: Choose Your Own Adventure**

**By Mina**

**18.**

Luke bowed his head.

He was angry, and he couldn't go after Palpatine in anger. Even though he hadn't acted upon it, the fear and anger were still there and Luke knew that his impulse to strike out at Palpatine was just another outlet for them. And he couldn't act with those emotions guiding his hand.

So he turned away from the temptation, and moved deeper into the shadows.

Vader continued to stalk him, but not particularly successfully. Which wasn't characteristic of the Dark Lord, and Luke suspected there wasn't a serious intent to find him. Luke smiled thinly at that, wondering who Vader's pretence was for. Palpatine, probably.

Luke needed time: time to collect himself, time to centre himself, and it looked like Vader - for whatever reason - was going to grant him that time.

He moved deeper into the shadows, neatly moving out of Vader's path once again.

And it went on, an unspoken dance, for an uncertain time. Vader pursuing, Luke falling back. In silence, they kept going.

_Thank you_, Luke sent, even though he didn't know if Vader would hear the thought. Because he knew now that Vader couldn't follow through, couldn't attack him if Luke refused to be goaded. And that meant _everything_.

"I grow tired of this," Palpatine interjected suddenly. "Fight or die. Your choice, but my patience has reached its limit."

Luke licked his lips. He stepped forward. Ready now, composed. Together, Vader and he could -

_Danger!_ his senses screamed. And apparently Vader and Palpatine felt it to. They all looked in one direction, towards the focus of anticipation, and -

"No!" Palpatine cried.

And then there was a booming sound, the deck-plates shifted, and Luke knew what had happened. The Death Star was about to explode.

_They did it_, he thought. _Lando made it to the core reactor_.

He looked over at Vader.

Vader looked over at him.

Luke opened his mouth to speak, to say something, some last words, something meaningful -

- and the world exploded into fire and pain and then nothing.

**The end.**

**You killed them all. Go back to the start to see if you could have had a happier ending!**


	19. Chapter 19

**Return of the Jedi: Choose Your Own Adventure**

**By Mina**

**19.**

But he had to try.

"Father, please!"

One last call, one last appeal to whatever was left of Anakin Skywalker.

And Luke heard Palpatine say, "Now young Skywalker, you will die." And the lightning intensified.

Seconds stretched impossibly. Each heartbeat was an hour in fiery pain, each breath a day of agony.

And then it stopped.

For another indeterminable time, all Luke could do was lie still, dragging breath into his spasming lungs, his hot cheek to the cold floor, all energy burnt away.

He heard a scream, saw a flash of brilliant blue from the corner of his eye.

_Father_, he thought, and he managed to move. Just twitched his fingers at first - and _kreth_, that hurt! - but when he heard Vader's respirator miss a breath, he moved faster, rising against the complaints of his muscles, crawling instinctively towards where his father lay.

His fingers found the black padding of Vader's clothing, then the plastisteel of his armour.

"Father," he whispered. His voice sounded scratched raw. Luke pulled Vader's body away from the abyss he leant over, still trying to decipher what had just happened.

But it was obvious, really.

Vader had saved him.

And been mortally wounded when he did.

For a moment there wasn't space in Luke's frazzled mind for the implications of that. Instead, he followed the warning siren sounding in his heart and pushed himself up from the floor, dragging Vader up with him, adrenaline moving his feet.

Time passed with an elastic unreality. Somewhere between the throne room and hanger, Luke realised the Death Star was evacuating. And somewhere between the hanger entrance and the shuttle he was aiming for, it finally filtered into Luke's mind what had happened.

Vader had sacrificed himself. Vader was going to die. After all the fighting and all the risks taken, Luke was still going to lose his father. And there wasn't a damn thing he could do about it.

He stumbled, only a short distance from the _Lambda_-class shuttle. He cursed, trying to rise again and drag Vader with him.

"Luke..."

Luke looked down, not sure what to say to the man who had just thrown his life away for him. For the father who'd just thrown his life away for him.

"Help me take this mask off," Vader said.

Luke shook his head in instant denial. He reached out for Vader as if he could make the man stay, make the man live, by nothing more than the Force of his own desires, his own lifelong dreams of a father. "But you'll die," he said. And how hard had it been to voice what they both knew was inevitable now?

Vader - or Anakin, or whoever he was now - gently stated the obvious. "Nothing can stop that now." Luke blinked. His eyes were stinging, and he didn't think it was just the electric backwash from the evacuating ships. "Just for once... let me look on you with my own eyes."

Luke pressed his lips together, wanting to deny Vader - or Anakin, or whoever he was now - his request, if only to delay the inevitable. But he couldn't; couldn't deny his father his dying wish, even if that wish had been for both of them to lay down here and wait for the Death Star to blow.

Hesitantly, he removed the faceplate of Vader's mask. His hands wanted to shake, he realised. With nerves, with the prospect of coming face to face with the man who had been dead to him for twenty-one years, and was soon to be dead to him again.

But the man whose face was revealed smiled at him, the corners of his ice-blue eyes crinkling with satisfaction.

"Now go, my son."

And the voice was different, so different. It could have been an entirely different man who lay dying in front of Luke, to the one who had thrown his lightsaber at him minutes earlier, who had attacked him relentlessly. But it wasn't a different man. It was this man, and Luke felt no anger now - only sadness, at too many dreams that would go un-lived.

"Leave me."

Leave him? _Like hell_ _I will_, Luke thought fiercely.

"No, you're coming with me. I can't leave you here." Luke moved closer. "I've got to save you."

Because that had been the point of all of this. He hadn't come here to martyr himself and he hadn't come here to kill the Emperor. He hadn't even come to distract Palpatine from what Han and Leia were doing down on Endor.

He'd come to save his father.

"You already have, Luke," Vader - or Anakin, or whoever he was now - said. And Luke despaired, because he knew that in a way the man was right. But achieving that didn't feel like a victory. It felt like a defeat. "You were right about me," his father insisted. "Tell your sister... you were _right_."

And then the man strained for breath, his gaze becoming unfocused.

_No!_ Luke screamed, but the sound reverberated in his head. "Father," he said, as the body became heavier, the man suddenly losing what little strength he'd still had. "I won't leave you," Luke said, and in his mind he added, _so don't you dare leave me!_

But it was too late. And though they'd won, though Luke knew they'd all won - knew he'd get off the Death Star and knew it would be destroyed and knew Leia and Han and Chewie were fine - he wondered how it could have turned out different, if things had just travelled down another path.

And as Anakin Skywalker - or Darth Vader, or whoever he was - slipped quickly from Luke's grasp, those victories were barely consolation.

Luke bowed his head, in grief and in thanks for an opportunity too short and too sorrowful.

And then Anakin was gone, and it was over.

**The end.**

**You followed the movie. Go back to the start to see if you could have had a happier ending!**


	20. Chapter 20

**Return of the Jedi: Choose Your Own Adventure**

**By Mina**

**20.**

He moved further into the shadows, retreating from Vader. There was a light, shafting down from somewhere higher up, piercing the shadows. Luke followed it, crouching down where it hit the floor and then looking upwards, following it back up to its source.

There was a gap.

A gap leading up through the structure to somewhere near the hexagonal window that looked out onto the battle.

This was his chance. Luke knew it - he could _feel_ it. The Emperor was sat on his throne, waiting to see what Luke would do.

Luke smiled grimly.

_This_ was what he was going to do.

For all of them - for Vader and for Leia and for himself. For the Alliance. And without anger or fear.

He grasped a nearby support strut, braced his feet and hauled himself upwards with a push of the Force.

"What?!" That was Vader.

Luke ignored him, landing softly, the lightsaber hilt already in his hand -

- and just as quickly gone, flying from his grip as a burst of blue lightning flashed through the air and hit the weapon.

Luke looked up incredulously, to see Palpatine rising from his throne. "So, young Skywalker," he said, "you have chosen."

Luke set his jaw. "I have." He threw his hands out, sending a pummel of energy towards Palpatine. The Sith Lord saw it coming, and before it hit he sent off a burst of lightning back towards Luke.

_Your overconfidence is your weakness_, he heard, his own words echoing back to him in his mind. And he knew then that overconfidence had been _his_ weakness, too.

The burst of lightning was lethal.

For a moment Luke felt like he was exploding, his bones combusting as the electricity scorched through him. It hurt - _oh, kreth it hurt!_ - and then there was, blissfully, nothing more.

**The end.**

**You killed Luke! (and maybe Palpatine - I guess we'll never know). Go back to the start to see if you could have had a happier ending!**


End file.
